FOPPI

From the August 7, 2014 Washington Island Observer, Written by Janet Berggren The U.S. Coast Guard moved its station from Plum Island to Washington Island in 1991, but the name Coast Guard Station Plum Island became history in 1993, when the new station at Detroit Harbor was named Coast Guard Station Washington Island. Twenty years ago, in June 1994, Washington Island's Jackson Harbor Maritime Museum hosted a two-day reunion party for all former Plum Island Coast Guard personnel and their...

Thanks to a gift from Nancy Burgess, and her dad, Robert Hoth, we now have a 1950 ‘United States Coast Guard Radiobeacon System Great Lakes’ map to add to our collections. The Plum Island Station was one of the synchronized distance-finding commercial radio communications stations (Class C, 20-mile range) that served the bulk-carriers (iron ore, coal, petroleum, cement and limestone) boats and freighters on the Great Lakes. It was established May 3, 1940 and discontinued in 1982. The Plum...

Tim Fiest, Pat Nelson, Jon Wall on THE SHORELINE Earlier this summer, Pat Nelson, an Inventory Forester contracted by the Department of Nature Resources (DNR), reached out to FOPPI to ask if we could transport him to St. Martin Island to inventory a 1/6-acre plot. The primary challenge was determining how to access the island safely. We considered several options, including towing a boat or Zodiac, launching canoes or kayaks off The Shoreline, and navigating into the tricky harbor on the...